névé
Americannoun
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granular snow accumulated on high mountains and subsequently compacted into glacial ice.
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a field of such snow.
noun
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Also called: firn. a mass of porous ice, formed from snow, that has not yet become frozen into glacier ice
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a snowfield at the head of a glacier that becomes transformed into ice
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The upper part of a glacier, consisting of hardened snow.
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The granular snow typically found in such a field.
Etymology
Origin of névé
1850–55; < Franco-Provençal < Vulgar Latin *nivātum, noun use of neuter of Latin nivātus snow-cooled, equivalent to niv- (stem of nix snow ) + -ātus -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The last mile, névé predominating and therefore the pulling a trifle harder, we have risen into the upper basin of the glacier.
From Scott's Last Expedition Volume I by Scott, Robert Falcon
For I hate the long snow-fields, the vast plains of névé with their glare and their infinite infernal monotony.
From A Tramp's Notebook by Roberts, Morley
That part of a glacier which lies above the snow-line is styled névé; it is the fountain-head and source of supply to the glacier proper, which is the part that lies below the snow-line.
From Rivers of Ice by Ballantyne, R. M. (Robert Michael)
They are always a danger, like the snow cornice and the névé.
From The Silent Barrier by Tracy, Louis
At the lunch camp the snow covering was less than a foot, and at this it is a bare nine inches; patches of ice and hard névé are showing through in places.
From Scott's Last Expedition Volume I by Scott, Robert Falcon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.